The Return of Yarrick Lore

As usual, I'll write a short summary of the lore in The Return of Yarrick. I'm exhausted, so I won't write much, and I won't write in detail. Maybe I'll just do a bullet point list. I've been regularly working until 9pm everyday and reaching home past 10pm for the last few weeks. I even had to forfeit a planned paid leave because I had to work. Oh, well. It is what it is. Honor and duty, just like the Imperial Knight scion I am. Speaking of which, we have Knights in this book! Not a lot of Space Marines - only a few Space Wolves who show up at the beginning, and are barely metioned again (Yarrick musing to himself how they must have succeeded in protecting Armageddon's water supply), but this book is entirely dedicated to the Imperial Guard...plus their Knight allies. Just the way I like it! The Adeptus Astartes will get their chance to shine in 11th edition anyway, so let the Astra Militarum hog the spotlight for once.

- Yarrick chases Ghazghkull to Icaria, where the latter got Orkimedes and Nazdreg to build a mass tellyporta that went out of control and broke the planet apart.

- Yarrick gets his skull caved in and bones broken after poking Ghazghkull with his power claw.

- The survivors flee Icaria, and thinking Yarrick is dead, spread the news.

- But the Space Wolves save Yarrick, brings him back to life, and tells him he is important to the fate of Armageddon.

- They return on a frigate, Ice Troll, and Yarrick prepares to descend on a Thunderhawk along with a handful of Space Wolves.

- After the season of Blood, which was the whole Angron invasion of Armageddon in the last Crusade supplement, Armageddon receives reinforcements during the long months of Season of Fire, including several Order of Our Martyred Lady preceptories, led by Canoness Preceptor Mercia and Intranzia Fraye (who now has a model). Oh, and Inquisitor Ynigoh Kroyle of the Ordo Xenos too, who also has a model.

- The planetary governor, Agmund von Ruger, calls for an offensive to wipe out the Orks, but General Tybault Locke of the Armageddon Steel Legion wisely thinks it's a bad idea. Reckless and impractical.

- Unfortunately, Commissar Graves - and I think someone in the writing team named her Graves on purpose - steps in and practically threatens everyone at gunpoint to go along with von Ruger's crazy plan.

- Left with no choice, Locke forms army-sized Purgation Corps to burn down the forest, but whole they're spread thin (and having success in incinerating lots of Orks), Waaagh! Ghazghkull teleports straight into the Armageddon system, smashes apart Battle Fleet Armageddon and drops billions of Orks onto Armageddon.

- With that mass tellyporta thing causing disruptions in the warp, Armageddon can't send out an astropathic message for help...but fortunately, Yarrick has a MacGuffin that could boost the Astropaths' powers. Why he just didn't use the Astropaths on the Space Wolves strike cruiser (wait, what? They called it a frigate a few pages ago), Ice Troll, I have no clue. Maybe the astropaths in the Hive Cities are more powerful?

- Wazdakka and his speedwaaagh! are at the vanguard.

- They sweep past the Meridium, Orientum and Liberation Lines. The poor Krieg 547th Line Korps...anyway, they reach the Mannheim Gap, where Locke's reinforcements just happen to emerge from.

- The Astra Militarum forces, caught in the open, make their last stand. But Yarrick shows up to save them, and they rout the Orks before withdrawing. Oh, three Space Wolves join Yarrick, but then they return to their gunship to fly to the Deadlands, to secure crucial supplies of water and promethium, so they aren't with the Imperial Guard for long. So it's mostly Militarum Tempestus Scions from Valkyries who accompany Yarrick from this point on (where on Holy Terra did Yarrick requisition those Storm Troopers from?).

- Yarrick and most of the forces retreat to Hive Volcanus, but they lose Colonel Kurzen and his 36th Krieg Infantry Regimemnt, and Canoness Mercia, who was dragged around by Wazdakka before she finally dies.

- Graves, despite being the idiot who ordered the reckless sortie of the Purgation Corps and was the whole reason Armageddon was caught with its pants down and the defenders stretched thin when Ghazghkull and his Waaagh! showed up, unsurprisingly blames the pragmatic and sensible Locke and executes him for the crime of possessing common sense. She then delegates command to Marshal Gorman of the Death Korps of Krieg...wait, he's not related to Lieutenant Gorman from Aliens, is he? The United States Colonial Marines.

- Yarrick heads to the astropathic sanctum, only to find the astropathic choir all murdered by Ork commandoes, who left a taunting message. NO ESCAPE. Oh, well...

- The forces of Hive Volcanus split into two - Yarrick leads an armored brigade toward Hive Death Mire to use the astropathic relay station. Graves, Marshal Gorman, his Death Korps of Krieg, Leman Russ battle tanks crewed by grizzled veterans, two lances from House Terryn, armored transports, Hive Militia, Cadians, Kriegsmen, Semtexians and Mordians would launch a diversionary attack to distract the Orks.

- Graves and Gorman succeed in distracting Wazdakka, but they lose 7/8 of their forces. Ouch.

- Yarrick leaves via the Sainted Gate. His entourage is comprised of Hippogriff AFVs, Centaur RSVs packed with Cadian Shock Troops, Hellhounds, Banewolves, squadrons of Leman Russ tanks, mechanized infantry aboard Chimeras and Tauroxes, Rogal Dorns, Wyverns, and Adeptus Mechanicus fuel and ammunition carriers. And Knights of Houses Terryn and Hawkshroud. Plus Valkyries and Vultures, the black Baneblade, Fortress of Arrogance, and two Warhound Titans of Legio Metalica - Lupex Destructor and Hound of Hades.

- They annihilate the Deathskull Speedboss Grizsnag and his Boyz as they leave. Epic.

- They are attacked along the way, are threatened by a toxic ash storm, and come across a sizeable Ork warband in a fortress with three Stompas and lots of tanks, walkers and vehicles. Yarrick and friends decide to smash through the fortress, losing Lupex Destructor and a trio of Knights but taking down two Stompas in return. Why the f the Knights of House Terryn happen to be standing so damned near the Stompas when they are being bombarded by the Warhound Titans, Benablade, Leman Russ tanks and Rogal Dorn tanks, I have no idea.

- As the ash storm sweeps over them, they smash through the fortress and continue along the highway, ignoring the third Stompa.

- Unfortunately, Wazdakka has raced ahead and is waiting for them with an ambush. He takes down the remaining Warhound, Hound of Hades, but stupidly lets Yarrick and the Fortress of Arrogance get away. The rest of the Imperial Guard tanks manage to get into a tunnel, far from Wazdakka.

- Ghazghkull, however, has other plans. The moment the Fortress of Arrogance emerges from the tunnel, he destroys it from orbit with a kustom soopablasta strike from Kill Wrecka. Kroyle panics, thinking Yarrick is dead, but surprise, surprise! The Lord Commissar alights from a Chimera that manages to reach Hive Death Mire. The Old Man, the legend, is smart enough to use his precious Baneblade as a decoy.

- Yarrick and his honor guard fight their way up the Ork-infested Hive Death Mire, reaches the command spire, and he uses the Macguffin...I mean Pharus Horrifica, or rather the astrophatic choir use it, and their noble sacrifice sends a signal to the void.

- Yarrick then takes command of the beleaguered Armageddon defenses, but is unable to prevent the planet from falling.

- Hive Infernus is besieged. Hive Hades and Hive Thoraddis are destroyed. Hive Tempestora is in Ork hands. Hive Death Mire, Hive Acheron and Hive Volcanus hold firm, but Acheron falls soon, with Ghazghkull personally showing up in an asteroid, no less.

- Then the hololith lights up with the contrails of orbital landers and traces of descending drop pods.

- "Imperator," an Astartes (presumably Blood Angels) says over the vox, signalling the start of 11th edition.